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International political alignment during the Trump presidency: voting at the UN general assembly

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  • Martin Mosler
  • Niklas Potrafke

Abstract

We examine voting behavior of Western allied countries in line with the United States over the period 1949 until 2019. Descriptive statistics show that voting in line with the United States on resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was on average 7.2 percentage points lower under Donald Trump than under the preceding United States presidents. The policy shift is especially pronounced for resolutions dealing with the Middle East. The decline in common UNGA voting behavior is statistically significant for the resolution agreement rate and the absolute difference of ideal points. The results do not suggest that the alienation of Western allies is driven by ideological distance based on a classical leftwing-rightwing government ideology scale.

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  • Martin Mosler & Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "International political alignment during the Trump presidency: voting at the UN general assembly," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 481-497, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:46:y:2020:i:3:p:481-497
    DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2020.1719405
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    Cited by:

    1. Henning Vöpel & Harms Bandholz & Gabriel Felbermayr & Christoph Spengel & Jost Heckemeyer & Martin Mosler & Niklas Potrafke & Henrik Müller & Gabriel J. Felbermayr, 2020. "Die USA vor dem Wahlkampf: Die Spuren Donald Trumps in Wirtschaft und Politik," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(01), pages 03-29, January.
    2. Carla Martinez Machain, 2021. "Exporting Influence: U.S. Military Training as Soft Power," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 65(2-3), pages 313-341, February.
    3. Hugo Oriola & Jamel Saadaoui, 2024. "How do geopolitical interests affect financial markets reaction to international institution projects?," Working Papers of BETA 2024-25, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    4. Dähler, Timo, 2020. "Bias or ignorance? The politics and economics behind sovereign credit ratings," MPRA Paper 103965, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Boumans, Dorine & Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Ruthardt, Fabian, 2024. "Political leaders and macroeconomic expectations: Evidence from a global survey experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    6. Plouffe, Michael, 2024. "The Public and the Assembly: Foreign Public Opinion and Voting in the UNGA," OSF Preprints pu2yv, Center for Open Science.
    7. Martin Mosler, 2020. "Autocrats in the United Nations General Assembly: A Test of the Decoy Voting Hypothesis," ifo Working Paper Series 340, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    8. Mosler, Martin, 2021. "Autocrats in the United Nations General Assembly: A test of the decoy voting hypothesis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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